Another shrimp dead! :(

[MarkW19]

My 2nd fire shrimp died last night.

He's not been eating for 2 days (I target feed him mysis/seaweed/gamma/brineshrimp). Then he shed his skin a day ago, and he died last night.

This is the 4th shrimp I've lost!

Water params are fine: pH 8.2, SG 1.023, everything else is stable and a good level.

What could cause this??

 

[Shultz]

Whats your temp been like? I have a digi thermo on my tank which stores the high/low, had to add a 6" desk fan in the past couple of days to stop it changing more than 2f during day/night....

I think I lost a cleaner about 4 days ago because of temp swings?

Cheers Shelton.

 

[MarkW19]

It never changes more than 1° a day...

It's between 27.6 and 28.4 every day, and has been since I put him in over a month ago (he's been fine - active, eating etc.).

 

[Shultz]

Ideal (it is just that) is 24-26C though mine seems more happy around the 26.5-27.3C to me & this is just IMHO 28.4C is rather high?

I would say its just bad luck, but to lose 4 shrimps suggests otherwise? Do you dose anything to the tank? how do you measure your SG? again most books I've read suggest inverts like a SG of 1.025?

Just remember the above is just suggestions trying to help, not must do's

Cheers Shelton.

 

[MarkW19]

It rarely gets above 28, but can do. It's more important to be stable, 28.4 isn't THAT high...

I measure my SG with a refractometer.

Dunno :/

 

[MarkW19]

Not dosing anything - never have done!

They can die from a molt though can't they?

 

[Shultz]

Not dosing anything - never have done!

They can die from a molt though can't they?

Hmmmmmm, dunno tbh? can't think of anything else to suggest? Have you tested to make sure you haven't had an Am or Ni spike?

Cheers Shelton.

 

[MarkW19]

Is it possible he was over-fed? I fed him every other day with a piece of mysis/gamma/seaweed etc. He went crazy everytime I put it in.

I'm reluctant to put another shrimp in incase the same thing happens again!

 

[Shultz]

Maybe? seems a short space of time though? I don't target feed any of my shrimps or crabs, they live off whatever gets stuck in the LR etc & touch wood for the past 3 months apart from the cleaner last week the rest as stated in my sig are doing fine.....

Cheers Shelton.

 

[MarkW19]

No-one any ideas then?

Maybe he was over-fed in 6 weeks?

Seems strange that I've lost a total of 4 shrimp now though when all water params are fine.

I've never dosed with anything in my tank.

Anyone? I wanna get another fireshrimp but I'm reluctant!

 

[Foible]

Do you supplement the iodine? Many kinds of shrimp will die or even worse fall apart while still alive without good levels of iodine in their water.

 

[Foible]

Oh, and my cleaners and fires eat pretty piggishly every day by stealing fishfood, I don't think overfeeding bothers them unless it fouls the water.

I had the horrific experience of a cleaner shrimp that lost all but two of its legs in a molt. Shockingly, she survived because I learned of their need for iodine supplementation and after two molts she had all of her legs back.

 

[vega]

Have u guy check the copper level? Cu is toxic to invert. Some old pipe contain copper.
Norm Cu is the culprit. Over dosing iodine also deadly too.


HTH

 

[MarkW19]

I have no copper, because I've never dosed with it. All new equipment.

I've not been dosing iodine though - is this crucial?

 

[MarkW19]

And would they last for 8 weeks without any iodine??

No-one's ever told me this!

Does iodine do anything negative to other livestock and the tank, if dosed correctly?

 

[Atari]

Like most things, the Iodine topic is debatable too.

Salt mix contains the correct amount of Iodine and regular water changes will maintain good levels. Iodine is deadly if over-dosed so I personally do not think it's worth the risk, unless you have a very large number of inverts and water changes can't keep up. To make things worse, most Iodine test kits are all but impossible to use.

 

[MarkW19]

lol...

I do a 20% waterchange every 2 weeks. So for iodine, perhaps thats not enough?

 

[Atari]

I think it's perfectly adequate.

I really have no idea why you're having all these problems with shrimp.. usually it's acclimation that people mess up, but that wouldn't account for them living weeks and then dying.

If you go to Oasis then try a shrimp from them.. if that one doesn't make it then I guess it's just some unknown factor in your tank. I know people who have the same problem with snails.. sometimes it's just one of those things.

 

[Foible]

If you plan to rely soley on water changes to maintain trace elements in your water you should be changing a lot more water a lot more frequently. As a person who's raised and bred cleaners, my experience shows me that the fry die within a few moltings without iodine supplementation and the adults can fall apart. It's pretty hard to OD on iodine if you use one of the pre-packaged things like the kent iodine and follow the instructions religiously. Beginners should avoid Lugol's solution as it's easy to OD.

 

[Atari]

Another thing.. perhaps try testing your RO water for copper?